I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

There is a lot of negativity in the world and we should prepare for it. I feel like I sometimes get caught off guard by negativity. I then respond in a not so ideal way. If I prepare for it I will be better able to handle it with patience, forgiveness, and understanding. I remember a scenario last year where one of the guys working for me was frustrated by someone they were working with. He ran into them at some point and asked if everything was okay. The person’s dog had recently passed and he wasn’t handling it well. I try to remember that when I’m driving and I’m cut off or someone is clearly in a hurry behind me. I love the stoic for today and I think I’ll write it down so I can read it every morning.

“When you first rise in the morning tell yourself: I will encounter busybodies, ingrates, egomaniacs, liars, the jealous and cranks. They are all stricken with these afflictions because they don’t know the difference between good and evil. Because I have understood the beauty of good and the ugliness of evil, I know that these wrong-doers are still akin to me…and that none can do me harm, or implicate me in ugliness-nor can I be angry at my relatives or hate them. For we are made for cooperation.”
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.1